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Denys Arcand returns to the big screen with “It Feels Like I’m A+”, a drama starring Rémy Girard and Sophie Lorain.
On the same day that I write about the most recent film by veteran Canadian director Denys Arcand, “Testament”, 2023, which in Portugal received the creative commercial designation of “It Looks Like I’m A+”, I was able to read in the magazine “Nature” that in the on our planet, the progressive disappearance of the polar caps, with consequent melting and greater concentration of liquid water in the regions of the equator, means that the Earth is suffering a slowdown in its rotation movement, which will imply a necessary adjustment in the how our clocks are calibrated.
AND HERE WE GO, SINGING AND LAUGHING, TWO STEPS FROM THE ABYSS…
We can say, paraphrasing an unspeakable film from the old and, in this case, not at all glorious national cinematography, that “O Destino Marca a Hora” (for those who don’t know, produced in 1970, directed by Henrique Campos and with the inimitable Tony de Matos) . Naturally, the phenomenon of rotational regression goes unnoticed by even the attentive eye of ordinary mortals. Already more visible will be the decline of Western civilization and the corresponding erosion of the thought that once built a system of values that, whether we like it or not, are ours. I am talking above all about considered and rational behavior, which, in association with the phenomenon of Nature, cannot be resolved simply with a cosmological watchmaking operation. We dance like this under a volcano about to explode, to quote a well-known novel (I think, I’m not saying anything anymore), “Under The Volcano”, written by the Englishman Malcolm Lowry and published in 1947.
In the film “Testament” there are several characters that deserve attention, but one stands out from the rest: it is Jean-Michel Bouchard (Rémy Girard), an archivist in pre-retirement who decides to live out his remaining days in a nursing home, which is actually quite comfortable. . In this institution for those who can, the insinuating Director, Suzanne Francoeur (Sophie Lorain), gains a special place in Jean-Michel’s heart as she consolidates her importance in this fiction where the outside world seems aligned to destroy the possible and The desired harmony of those who live there and have lived (in the case of the protagonist, still want to live) many challenging adventures. And these will appear before them in the field of confrontation with the most controversial or clumsy ideas of the so-called modern society.
In fact, Jean-Michel and Suzanne will enter into a kind of collision course with the reductive concerns of political correctness and with the pseudo-militant furies of certain activists who, if at times they manage to fully justify their actions, for example in their concern legitimate right to suppress a series of injustices that it is in fact urgent to correct, in other cases they end up diverting and pushing their struggle to the lowest level of intolerance, generating along the way a trail of shouting sprinkled with ignorance and even, at times, manifest imbecility which unfortunately denounces an ideology “woke” uncontrolled, contaminated by prejudices worse than those they claim to oppose and devoid of its initial and noblest purposes, that is, the fight for social justice and racial equality.
In fact, imagine what a group of folkloric people installed with weapons and luggage like a sit-in in the vicinity of the nursing home he considered his most urgent mission: to banish a painting, actually a mural, that represented the encounter of the French explorer of Breton origin Jacques Cartier (1491-1557) with the indigenous people Mohawks who in the 16th century inhabited what at the time had yet to be definitively conquered, that is, the future Quebec, the future Canada and, by the way, the future United States of America. All because they considered it abusive of the image and identity heritage of the so-called First Nationsthe First Nations, that is, the native groups that have lived there for thousands of years before the arrival of Europeans.
I must say that the debate on the subject in question has serious arguments, and for many years I supported and continue to support a film and visual arts festival entitled imagineNative which takes place in Canada, in the city of Toronto. It is dedicated to cinema and visual arts of native populations from all over the world and not just from the American continent. Precisely for this reason I followed the problem closely and was and am an accomplice of many who defend a full affirmation of men and women who should not be, as is the case in many countries, confined to a reservation system that is not far from being anachronistic. apartheid, very different from that in force in South Africa but equally discriminatory, which should not be in force in the 21st century and much less in the context of regimes that consider themselves democratic. But I know one thing: my friends from imagineNative The people who were crazy about the protest were fleeing like the devil from the cross, those making noise just because, instead of helping, they were just burying the expectations placed on a fair and lasting solution for the cultural and social affirmation of native peoples.
AND AT A CERTAIN POINT IN THE FILM THEY SHOOT IN ALL DIRECTIONS
Amid the confusion generated around the controversy over the mural, we witness a curious and unequal number of scattered episodes that serve to feed with humor and incisive criticism the path of Jean-Michel, who has always been searching for a point of existential balance in a world at stake in giving the floor to incompetents and crazy people. Initially, we see him receive a literary prize alongside a group of women awarded for works that, as they say, are the face of their authors. And the feminine range caters to the most diverse tastes, from the hysterical lesbian to a serious Muslim.
Afterwards, our hero reports on the misfortune that has befallen a companion who, despite his respectable age, insists on behaving like a young boy, one of those who follows diets advertised as healthy, more yoga and meditation, more physical exercise According to the doctor I don’t know how many on the internet, in short, a man committed to dying healthy. Later on, and in a moment of particular sensitivity, we witness an arbitrary and frustrating decision from the highest authorities that govern the nursing home: to do away with the existing library, replacing it with computers and video games. All because they think that older people don’t like reading and prefer alternative universes that, after the computer invasion, lead them to waste hours in front of screens in the aim of gaining x points until they reach the status of superheroes.
Several sequences, the weakest because they are most exaggerated, attest to the idiocy of the measure. We also have the right to a gender moment with one of the tenants demanding by decree that they start using inclusive language with her. This time, the sequences dedicated to him are a pure delight. Finally, there is a subplot which is being created in connection with a family crisis that involves Suzanne and her absent daughter and, in this context, Jean-Michel will seek to be the connecting link and the guardian angel capable of reestablishing the lost harmony. Anyway, a pinch of melodrama doesn’t hurt anyone. But what is important to highlight is the fact that Denys Arcand took these ingredients to extract from them a narrative pulse that, without abandoning the essentials, gives rise to what will undoubtedly be the biggest and most direct criticism of the political power installed in the state government.
Without mincing words and due to the media frenzy generated by activists who do not give up on surrounding the entrance to the nursing home, the Minister of Culture with the unmistakable accent québécois instigates Suzanne to resolve the issue of the mural, and she does so, but in the worst way imaginable. I tell you nothing more so as not to spoil the surprise, except that the director and screenwriter ends the film with a sequence set in the year 2042 and that the solution to the mural imbroglio is not a source of pride for either the French- or English-speaking community of the Canada.
It seems like I’m +, the Critic
Movie title: Testament
Director(s): Denys Arcand
Actor(s): Rémy Girard, Sophie Lorain, Marie-Mai Bouchard
Genre: Drama, 2023, 115min
Conclusion:
PROS: Return in good form of a veteran of Canadian cinema, producer, director, screenwriter and actor Denys Arcand. I remember films that marked his filmography, such as “Réjeanne Padovani”, 1973, or “Le Déclin de L’Empire Américain” (The Decline of the American Empire), 1986, or “Jésus de Montréal”, 1989, or “Les Invasions Barbares ” (The Barbarian Invasions), 2003, or “La Chute de L’Empire Américain” (The Fall of the American Empire), 2018.
AGAINST: “Testament”, that is “Testament” or even “Witnesses” in Portuguese, would be a fairer and more direct hypothesis to name the film in our country. But I confess that in this case the chosen title “It Looks Like I’m A+” isn’t bad and it still makes sense considering the protagonist’s initial disposition. It can even be seen as an extension of the biting and cynically confident presence of the character Jean-Michel, an intelligent figure mostly surrounded by fools, played by actor Rémy Girard.
